Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

The Librarian Manual says we should combine "Editions/translations of the book in other languages. Even though many translations differ significantly, we've made the decision to combine them all, and have people note the differences in their reviews."

Does this policy apply to short story collections published under the same name, but whose various translations contain very different sets of short stories?

As an example, I'm looking at George R.R. Martin's Sandkings. The English edition contains "The Way of Cross and Dragon," "Bitterblooms," "In the House of the Worm," "Fast-Friend," "The Stone City," "Starlady," and "Sandkings."

The Czech edition (Písečníci) has an identical ToC. The French edition (Les rois des sables) contains all of those except "In the House of the Worm," which is similar enough that I could see some justification for combining it. The German edition (Sandkönige) goes further, also cutting "Bitterblooms" and "Fast-Friend," which leaves only four of the original seven stories.

Then there's the Bulgarian edition (Пясъчните крале), which overlaps with the English edition on "Sandkings," "Fast-Friend," and "The Stone City" but throws in "Nightfliers," "And Seven Times Never Kill a Man," "Meathouse Man," and "Weekend in a War Zone" as its other four stories. Further removed is the Italian edition (I re di sabbia), which overlaps with the English edition only on the title story--its other contents are "In the Lost Lands," "Nightfliers," "The Glass Flower," "The Ice Dragon," and "The Hedge Knight."

Where's the line? What should and shouldn't be combined? For the moment, I've separated them out (except the Czech) and added a librarian note with the list of stories to each to make it clear why, but I can fold them in again if needed.

You are correct. If the individual stories don't match up, they should be treated as distinct books.

Agree, we only combine if the works within the book are the same.

How much the same, though? What if the translated collection contains all the stories of the original except for leaving out one?

Right. To skip the foreign language angle and look at another example, the recent paperback editions of Megan Whalen Turner's novels The Thief and The King of Attolia each contain a "bonus" short story that hardcover and older paperback editions don't--but we still fold all of those together. In general, it's not uncommon for paperback novels previously published in hardcover to contain a little extra bonus material, like sample chapters for the next book in the series. Yet we don't separate those editions out.

So does one story make a difference? Does two? Is the line different for anthologies and novels?

Personally, I try to aim for no more than 5% different (10% at the outside). So "bonus extras" usually fall within that; an additional novella would not.

5%. Okay, I can work with that. Thanks, rivka! I think I've almost got GRRM's books straightened out. . .at least until the next database pull.

Another case of "almost but not quite the same"... sometimes paperback or translated editions split a long novel into two or even three volumes. I know we don't combine two- with three- volume editions. But (say) the French and the Finnish editions might both be two volumes and split in slightly different places. I presume those would be considered close enough to combine. (And they may have an introduction or other unique material, but again, not different enough to matter.) OK?

Correct Vasha7